Blow off tube

Ive read in a couple places about people using "blow off tubes" during the first few days of fermentation in which excess foam and other things are expelled from the carboy. One source stated that the foam took with it excessive hop bitterness and other bi-products that tend to cause hangovers. My question is if I am using a larger fermentation vessel, in my case I plan on using an eight gallon plastic conical, will the brew be worse off than if I were to use a carboy with a blow off tube? Thanks.

Jason

Having never compared identical brews done with both fermentation procedures, I can't really say for sure.

I use a 6.5 gallon carboy for my primary fermentation and get blow-off through my blow-off tube only about 25% of the time. Every beer I have brewed has met or exceeded my expectation. I haven't noticed offensive bitterness from those that did not expell through the blow-off tube.

I'm sure that it can't hurt to get rid of that foam but I don't worry about it when it doesn't. That stuff will settle to the bottom when the krausen falls anyway and will be left behind during the transfer to the secondary.

Either way, it get's left out of the finished beer.